New York City’s population has hit a record high of 8,405,837, according to an estimate released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The city’s population, as of July 2013, increased by 230,704 people, or roughly 2.8%, since 2010.

Each of the city’s five boroughs posted population gains, with both Queens and Staten Island reporting new population highs. An analysis of the data from the New York City Department of City Planning showed the largest change occurred in Brooklyn, where the population grew by 3.5%, or 87,400 people; followed by Queens (2.9%, 65,500 people); Manhattan (2.5%, 40,300 people); the Bronx (2.4%, 33,600 people); and Staten Island (0.8%, 3,900 people). Read More »

The New York Public Library launched an online tool to help modern computer users connect with relatives who lived in the city at the time of the 1940 census.

The search tool helps users navigate the handwritten 72-year-old census forms released Monday by the National Archives, which aren’t immediately searchable by name. To find an ancestor, you would need to know the precise enumeration district, similar to a ZIP code, in which that person lived.

As the Journal reported last month, the library created a workaround, dubbed “Direct Me NYC: 1940,” that uses 1940-era telephone directories to help users pin down a relative’s address in the five boroughs. With that key piece of information, the user can then locate a digital version of the handwritten census forms, which list a host of detail on every person living in the family household at the time Read More »